Permanent account number (PAN) is the identifier of Indian income tax payers in the form of AAAPL1234C. It is unique, 10-character alpha-numeric identifier, issued to all juristic entities identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act 1961. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax Department under the supervision of the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) and it also serves as an important proof of identification.[1]

Like Aadhaar and driving license, it is also issued to foreign nationals on valid visa as it is not a proof of nationality.

This number is almost mandatory for financial transactions such as opening a bank account, receiving taxable salary or professional fees, sale or purchase of assets above specified limits etc.

The primary purpose of PAN is to bring a universal identification to all financial transactions and to prevent tax evasion by keeping track of monetary transactions of high-net-worth individuals.

The PAN is unique, valid for life-time of the PAN-holder throughout India. It is not affected by change of address.

Contents

PAN card size is of standard plastic bank-card. It bears face-photo of the holder, date of birth, date of issue and a hologram sticker as security feature. The card does not bear address of the holder. However, the accompanying PAN letter bears the address of the holder. The PAN number and the letter together may be accepted as address proof by the service provider.

Minors PAN cards issued through UTI-ITSL do not bear photo nor the date of issue.

Older PAN cards issued before the year 2001 were black & white print on laminated plain paper with almost unrecognizable photograph. Those cards are still valid. People can apply for new plastic card Reprint (same PAN number) on payment of fee.[1]

Quoting of PAN is mandatory in income tax returns, tax deduction at source, and with communication with Income Tax Department. PAN is also required to be provided for opening new bank account, new telephone / mobile phone SIM, purchase of foreign currency, bank deposits above Rs. 50,000/=, purchase and sale of immovable properties, vehicles etc.[2]

Obtaining PAN is optional and voluntary like passport, driving license, Aadhaar etc. However, its use is mandatory at required places, like PAN for high-value financial transactions, Driving License for motor driving, passport for foreign travel etc.

One can apply for PAN by submitting the prescribed PAN application to the authorized PAN agency of the district or through online submission to NSDL along with 2 face-photos, ID proof, address proof and fee. In case of Re-print (re-issue), a photocopy of the old PAN is also required. Quoting Aadhaar Number attached with Aadhaar card is optional presently. However, it is recommended to provide Aadhaar letter now, if one has it, so that PAN gets linked to Aadhaar. It will save future effort of Aadhaar linking when it becomes mandatory. It takes about one month to receive the card and is sent by registered India Post.[4]

The PAN structure is as follows: AAAPL1234C: First five characters are letters, next four numerals, last character letter.

The first three letters are sequence of alphabets from AAA to ZZZ

The fourth character informs about the type of holder of the card. Each holder is uniquely defined as below:

A — Association of Persons (AOP)

B — Body of Individuals (BOI)

C — Company

F — Firm

G — Government

H — HUF (Hindu Undivided Family)

L — Local Authority

J — Artificial Judicial Person

P — Individual

T — AOP (Trust)

The fifth character of the PAN is the first character

(a) of the surname or last name of the person, in the case of a "Personal" PAN card, where the fourth character is "P" or

(b) of the name of the Entity, Trust, society, or organisation in the case of Company/ HUF/ Firm/ AOP/ BOI/ Local Authority/ Artificial Jurdical Person/ Govt, where the fourth character is "C","H","F","A","T","B","L","J","G".

The last character is an alphabetic check digit.

Nowadays, the DOI (date of issue) of the PAN card is mentioned at the right (vertical) hand side of the photo on the PAN card.

The central government has introduced a new online service called "Know Your PAN" to verify or validate new and existing PAN numbers.[5]

Failure to comply with the provisions of Section 139A of Income Tax Act, penalty of Rs. 10,000/- for each default is payable u/s.272B by Assessing Officer.[6]

The issuance of PAN, verification, delivery and maintenance works on public private partnership (PPP) model like passport seva kendra (PSK) for reasons of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. It is operated by private companies (e.g. Karvy Consultancy, Alankit Assignments, Religare Securities, Integrated Registry, CAMS associates with NSDL and Bajaj Capitals,100 others) for processing of applications, collecting, handling and verifying personal documents like proof of ID, age and address, clarification with the applicants, printing the card and the letter and then mailing it. The processing agencies obtain the new PAN number online from the server of the income tax department after successful processing of the application documents. Some critiques in India may call the handling, processing and delivery of personal ID and financial documents by private contractors as violation of privacy, however it is not so.[7][8][9][10]

For the net savvy users, it is very easy to make application online at the websites of NSDL e-Governance or UTIITSL. Brief process note as available on NSDL e-Gov's TIN website is really useful.

Although there are only 30 million (3 crore) income tax payers in India, yet there are 170 million genuine PANs issued as of 2014.[11] While the alphanumeric PAN number is unique, individuals and corporate entities have been able to obtain multiple PAN cards fraudulently. It is illegal to obtain multiple PANs and there is a penalty of Rs.10,000/= when caught. In addition, there are fake PAN cards due to ubiquitous plastic card printers.[12][13][14][15][16] Additionally, illegal immigrants have also got PAN cards issued to them; most have used the services of PAN card agents.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]